WHY DO YOU SCRAPBOOK?
Whenever I talk to scrapbookers about why they participate in our wonderful hobby, the first reason they give is some version of "I want to pass on the family photos and stories of our lives in a safe manner!" I agree! Documenting who we are and what we did is a great gift to our children and grandchildren. Since photography was invented and made popular in the late 1860's-1890's, families have been taking photos of their loved ones in order to remember them.
WHERE ARE YOUR OLDEST PHOTOS RIGHT NOW?
So given that basic premise, my next question is: "Have you done a heritage album yet?" The reply to this question is usually an interesting contradiction with the first reply....No, most have not done a heritage album. When I ask "Where are the ancestors' pictures right now?" the reply is often mixed. They are in a shoebox.... at Mother's house.... in a safe deposit box.... or even they don't really know where the photos all are!
DON'T JUST DO YOUR CURRENT PICTURES!
Listening to popular experts, we strive to get 'current'. In our efforts to "get current", many of us set the older photos out of our minds. They are a someday project that gets put on the back burner. But as our grandmothers knew, things that are forgotten on the back burner sometimes get ruined! Considering the fragile, irreplaceable, and priceless nature of those old photographs themselves, I go against conventional wisdom that says to get current first and then go backward in time. As most of us know from practical experience, getting current is an endless job. Some of us may never get current if our goal is to scrap all our pics and if our rate is less than a page a day. So, don't wait another year or two or three (or ten!) to catch up with your recent photo scrapping before you do a heritage album!
The bottom line is that if something happened to me and prohibited me from ever finishing my current pictures my husband, children, and friends know who is who in these recent pictures. They could identify themselves and their current friends and immediate family. They could probably do without me scrapping up the third trip to Disneyland. However, only I know who is who and where the locations are on the heritage photos that have been handed down to me.
For example, for my side of the family, only I know that the lady in the sunbonnet feeding chickens is my great grandmother Gramlich during the Great Depression in Missouri. And I know that the sweet baby in the white baptism gown is my great uncle shortly before his death of influenza in 1917 at age one and a heartbreak for my great-grandmother because she also lost another son age 3 the same year to the same illness. If I don't write it all down with the photos, my children will never know....They would be un-named black and whites in a box. Something mamma meant to do but never got around to.....Don't let that happen to your ancestors! I think they deserve better.
TAKE HEART, YOU CAN DO IT!
Some people are worried that they won't be able to give their older photos a proper setting. They want to wait until they can really do it right. Of course those photos are special and you want to do a nice job. If you are concerned about being formal and classic enough for your photos, take heart! If you have been scrapbooking more than 9 months, you probably know the ins and outs of this hobby enough to do your heritage book. Given the simpler styles, classic colors, and basic journaling information needed on the pages, your heritage book will actually be in some ways EASIER than newer albums!
ROUND UP THOSE PICTURES
Unless there has been a fire or flood, every family had some photos starting from about 1890. Newspapermen and famous persons may even have photos from as early as 1860 or 1865 at the time of the Civil War. Between 1870-1900 professional photos were popular to commemorate important events such as baptism, death, confirmations, and marriages. About 1900, a couple's 25th and 50th wedding anniversaries were often subjects to be photographed. From 1920 onward, many families had their own cameras. The very oldest photos may not be in your immediate family but could be in the possession of second, third, or fourth cousins, great aunts or great uncles. After all, you have great-grandparents in common! Ask your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, great aunts or whoever is still alive to see any and all pictures from the family past. So, do it today! Do it this week! Just do it! Remember, if you wait two or three years (or ten!), those folks may not be around to answer your questions and share photos with you. I hate to say it but you may not be around either! So do it now. The saddest thing I have ever seen is a stack of lovely old family photos for sale at a garage sale or antique store with no labeling and no one to care about them....It happens every week at auction and estate sale....Don't let it happen to your family!
You don't need to have only originals--copies or xeroxes will also do for your heritage album. Show some interest, ask around, and make copies! Then label them! Write down or tape record the stories interview-style if the pictures belong to another relative. Your journaling will be half done for you! Your great grandchildren will be glad to see their 4th and 5th great grandparents pictures even if they are photocopied! And with the nice photocopiers and scanners today, many black and whites and sepia toned pics look great as copies in an album. Many discount stores also have the new Kodak reproduction machines that make several copies in minutes for only about $10 also.
CHOOSE YOUR ALBUM AND CHOOSE YOUR COLORS
After you have rounded up as many pics as you can, start on an album. Be sure to choose an album that you can add photo pages to later because you KNOW that a month after you get it all done there will be at least one more picture sent in by a loving aunt that needs to be added in! Ü I did my heritage album two years ago and I am still getting photos from very distant cousins who dig 'one more' up and know I want them.
Your heritage album is easier to complete if you choose one basic background page color and two colors for the matting. Choose papers that have very little pattern to them or are plain cardstock. Busy patterns are all right for matting in small amounts but could overpower a two tone photo when used as a whole page background. Buy lots of papers in the colors you choose. You don't want to run out in the middle of the album! That way you will have extras for the photos that are bound to turn up later on. Many heritage albums look great in any combination of the following colors. They do not conflict with the black and white or sepia tones of most old pictures.
GOLD
SILVER
BURGUNDY RED
NAVY BLUE
FOREST GREEN
BLACK
WHITE
OFF WHITE OR CREAM
PLUM
RUST
PICK A STYLE OF HEADLINE WRITING
If you do your own lettering, choose a simple but clear style. Elegant is nice but make sure it is legible --not only to you but to those reading your album fifty to a hundred years from now. Too many swirls may be distracting. Choose a style that is easy for you to write with also because you don't want to get bogged down and give up the project because your headlines are taking so long.
If you are using a computer to headline and journal, use basic black ink on an off-white or white paper. Make the font easy to read and the type large enough to be clear. Tiny print is hard for everyone to read. Keep the size about 16 point or larger.
JOURNAL IT ALL
When journaling, write everything you can down about the person in the photo. Name and dates of course but also the town they lived in and the details of the personality. If you did not know the person, add some time capsule type data on the era they lived in. If you are unsure of exact dates or years give the decade of the photo whenever possible.
Look in local county histories for details about epidemics, droughts, floods, and other interesting events that your ancestor may have lived through. I found out by reading a local area history that one of my great great grandparents was at the train station when Abraham Lincoln came through their little town in Illinois! These details make their lives more real and can also help you think of ways to do the album page for that person.
Headlines and journaling should be kept clear and understandable. Clichés we might understand this decade may not be clearly understood in the future. So, keep it clear.
SOME GREAT POEMS FOR THE TITLE PAGE
ANCESTORS
By Unknown
If you could see your ancestors
All standing in a row,
Would you be proud of them?
Or don't you really know?
Strange discoveries are often made,
In climbing the family tree.
Sometimes one is found in line
Who shocks the progeny.
If you could see your ancestors
All standing in a row,
Perhaps there might be one or two
You wouldn't care to know.
Now turn the question right about
And take another view.
When you shall meet your ancestors
Will they be proud of you?
THE MEMORY BOOK
by Myndee Reed
This memory book
That I have made
For all the world to see
Was created from my heart
forever my families to be
Each photo inside is a
memory, a dream,
to cherish for years to come
A walk through the good times,
the sorrow and pain
The laughter the joy and the fun!
My families legacy goes on
Our memories now cherished
The history preserved
Never will perish
HOME SWEET HOME
by John Howard Payne
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,
Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
Home, home, sweeet, sweet home!
There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!
FAMILY TREE RECIPES
by Mary Van Deusen
From mother came the leavening,
From grandfather the flour.
Grandma poured her spirits in
And brother, sugar's power.
Father was a phantom
And with him went the salt.
He died when I was just a child
So it's really not his fault.
I stood beneath the branches
And asked his family tree
If all the nuts upon the ground
Were fruitcakes just like me.
ADD IN THE REST OF YOUR FAMILY PHOTOS
I think using a minimum of 'busy' additions is the best way to bring the focus to the faces in your black and white photos. A small set of punch art flowers, a piece of lacey paper doily, one thematic sticker, or a nice border are all that are needed to accent your heirloom pictures.
I like to use photo corners in heritage books because chances are this album will regrettably not last forever and ever. Forever is a very long time. We will all be fortunate if our albums last 100 years. Therefore, in the future, some other great-grandchild yet unknown will be redoing my work. Part of my job now is to make their future task easier. I believe photo corners will make it easier for the future scrapbooker because they will not have to worry about undoing adhesives. I don't put adhesives of any kind on heirloom photos. There are so many nice photo corners out there now and you can even make your own.
Use the colors you chose earlier and repeat them in new ways throughout the album. That will make your work harmonious and give it a sense of continuous style. You will be so pleased with the results and because you don't have to keep running to the store or debating busy accents all the time, you will get done sooner too!
The Family Tree Scrapbook Page
This makes a great first or second page in the family heritage album. I often use a poem for my title page to set the mood of the album so then I use the Family Tree Page as my "second" page. The nice thing is you can make as many of them as you need. It works as a visual cue to help people understand where they fit in the family picture as they enter into your album. I have one for each of my parent's sides and for my husband's parent's sides. In my book, it make a four-page spread with the panoramic page protectors.
HOW TO MAKE THE FAMILY TREE PAGE
Starting with yourself or your children, write out a list of their names and birth dates and places. Do the same for yourself and your parents. Then add your grandparents on and the great grandparents....Add your spouse's side. Soon you will have the information you need to make a Family Tree Page as shown above.
Step 1) The Sky Background Paper:
I think a blue sky with clouds looks great for this kind of page. Many manufacturers make them now so choose the one you like best.
Step 2) The Grass:
You can use a grass die cut as I have or grass stickers or freehand cut grass in green papers or even make some ground in earth tones. This is placed along the bottom of the page, of course.
Step 3 The Tree base:
Freehand cut a trunk or use a large tree die cut for the base I centered my birch and maple trunks on their pages.
Step 4 ) The Green Leafy Background:
This looks like light green clouds and can even be cut with a cloud die cut if you like. I used three of them to give my tree some dimension. These are just to show the tree's shape underneath the smaller cut or punched leaves which will hold the names.
Step 5) Punch or Cut the Smaller Leaves for the Names of the People in Your Family:
The total number of jumbo cut/punched leaves (You could use apples too!) that you need to have for a 6 generation tree is 63. But punch out about 75 just to have a few spares. Even if you don't know all these persons by name now, make the leaves for all of them anyway! You will probably find more information on them as time goes by. We will make this page as if we DID know them all. It will give it a more balanced look.
I used a jumbo birch leaf punch and a jumbo maple leaf punch for these. But you can use small die cuts or freehand cut leaves or jumbo apple punches too. You can either punch them all the same color or make a different shade for each generation in the tree as I have done with the birch and maple trees in figures 7 and 8.
The maximum outer level of names that will fit well on a 8.5x11 or a 12x12 page is 32 leaves. This is out to the sixth generation or your great great great grandparent's level. Here is a list to help you determine how many biological grandparents we all have at each level.
yourself-one leaf
(or your name can be printed on the trunk of the tree.)
your parents-two leaves
your grandparents -four leaves
your great grandparents-eight leaves
your great great grandparents-sixteen leaves
your great great great grandparents-thirty two leaves
Step 6) Place The Oldest Generation of Leaves: Place the 32 outermost leaves for the great great great grandparents around the perimeter of the tree top. See Figure 3. (As an alternate example, Figure 8 above shows the way it would look with only 16 larger leaves around the outside which makes a five generation tree. ) Use a glue that is re-positionable when first laid on and then gradually dries to permanent for this project.
Step 7) Place the 16 Great Great Grandparents Below Them. I tried to have the parental couple's leaves close together and stems touching to indicate more clearly that they were a couple. The child's leaf tip touches the parent's stem. This is easiest to do with the birch punched leaves as they have a curve to them.
Step 8) Place the Great Grandparents Next. Do this in the same manner as the previous generation.
Step 9) Place the Grandparents On. You should be getting closer to the center now.
Step 10) Add your Parents
Step 11) Lastly, Add Yourself. You can be either a leaf in the center of your parents or you can be the tree trunk itself . I used a white gel pen on the tree trunks so it would show up well on the darker browns. For clarity, I labeled my tree trunks with the person's first, middle, and last name and the word "ancestors" so there was no doubt that the people on the leaves were the ancestors and not the descendants of that individual. Adding the date of that person's birth and death (or leaving a space for the death if they are still alive) would be helpful to future family researchers who may see this tree long after you are gone.
Step 12) Write on the Leaves:
I do this after I have all the leaves glued down with the repositionable glue. I used a black thin line marker as many of my ancestral names are Scandinavian and quite long. You will only be able to fit names on most punched-leaf sizes. If you want dates too, you can write them alongside the leaf on the outside.
Step 13) Decorate the Tree Trunk
I used a thin line black marker to add wood grain lines. If there are large spaces between leaves that you think make the connection between parent and child a little vague, you can add dotted lines to show the progression more clearly. See Figure 8.
Now you are finished with the Family Tree Page! It may take some research and some time but this is one page you will hold dear! What a treasure to color copy and give as a gift to all your siblings or parents as well! The heritage and links that we have with other family members can be honored and passed on...and that is what we are in this hobby for anyway, right?
TRACING YOUR OWN ROOTS A LITTLE MORE
If you would like to find out more information on geneology and tracing your family tree, try these great internet sites. I have been doing geneology for about 20 years and have made lots more progress using these sites in the last two years. Here are a few of my favorites.....Good Luck!
Surname Resources at Rootsweb
Search for the last name of your choice and see who else is looking for it too....
http://resources.rootsweb.com/surnames/
Search for your last names here too...This one is created by the sellers of geneology software...
Search for the ancestors in the town or county of their last known whereabouts! Be sure to leave a 'query' telling who you are searching for! A distant cousin may contact you!
And also you can search in the countries of their national origins too...
Social Security Death Index-Look this one over even if the ancestor you seek was 'before' social security.
http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/gen_ssdisearch.html
Search by last name for the people who were your grandparents or great grandparents among the HUGE Latter Day Saints (Mormon) archives. This is one of the best sites I know of.
Search the whole internet for any reference to your ancestor names but also use the other sites listed in this article because sometimes this site misses a few!
http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/ifftop.html
Search for the surname you need in the Family Tree Maker software makers collection
http://www.familytreemaker.com/cdhome.html
And if you find something promising at the above site, check at the two below for folks who will do FREE lookups for the correct cd numbers. Please do have the correct cd and FTM numbers from the above site in your emails when contacting them for lookups. Remember they are all volunteers!
http://loricase.com/CDs/cdlist.html
http://loricase.com/CDs/cdwftlist.html
